Microsoft has expanded its OneNote app platform by adding support for Mac and making the Windows desktop version free.

Rumours from last week claimed Microsoft was developing free desktop versions of OneNote for Mac and OneNote for Windows, and now the company has released both complementary variants of its note-taking and productivity app. The free desktop app should help Microsoft better compete with similar apps such as Evernote, even though the new OneNote app doesn't include all the features of the paid version.

You can now grab OneNote for Mac from Apple's Mac App Store at no cost. A free version of OneNote for the Windows desktop is available at OneNote.com. Until today, the OneNote app was limited to the Windows platform, iOS, Android, and the web. Also, older versions of the Windows desktop app were not free. Specifically, Windows users had to pay for the OneNote app by buying Microsoft's Office suite.

A few of the features missing in the free OneNote app include SharePoint support, version history, and Outlook integration. You'll need to upgrade to the paid version in order to have access to those features. Additionally, the free version, though ad-free, is limited to home and school use. As for new features in the OneNote.com service, you'll now see a OneNote web clipper, @ontenote.com emails, Office Lens, Microsoft's OCR technology, and more.

And finally, Microsoft said we could expect an updated version of OneNote for Windows 8 as part of its "Gemini" suite of apps, as well as an updated version of OneNote for the iPad as part of its release of Office for the iPad. They're expected to land soon.